03.06.11
3:30 p.m. CST Sunday, March 6, 2011
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STATUS REPORT: STS-133-21
STS-133 MCC STATUS REPORT #21
HOUSTON – Discovery astronauts wound up a successful and productive
seven days, 23 hours and 55 minutes of joint activities with the
International Space Station crew at 3:11 p.m. CST when hatches
between the two vehicles were closed.
In a brief farewell ceremony, Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey talked
about the mission’s accomplishments and thanked the station crew
members for their hospitality.
“We had a great time on board with you,” replied station Commander
Scott Kelly. “We’ll miss you, but most of all we’ll miss Discovery.
We wish her fair winds and following seas,” he said of the orbiter
flying its 39th and final mission.
Both thanked teams on the ground for their support.
During their stay Discovery crew members delivered and helped install
the Permanent Multipurpose Module Leonardo with its 6,500 pounds of
cargo for the station, the Express Logistics Rack 4 now installed on
the station’s exterior, and delivered an additional 2,000 pounds of
cargo on the middeck. During two spacewalks they completed a number
of maintenance and installation tasks.
“The mission is going extremely well,” shuttle lead Flight Director
Bryan Lunney said at an afternoon briefing. “We couldn’t be more
pleased. Discovery and her systems continue to perform flawlessly.”
Discovery crew members, Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, Mission Specialists
Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott, with some
help from their station counterparts, spent much of their morning
wrapping up the transfers of equipment and supplies between their two
spacecraft.
After an hour for a midday meal they had some free time during their
afternoon. Later Bowen and Barratt checked out rendezvous tools
Discovery will use as it moves away from the station.
After last-minute transfer of some medical experiments to Discovery
for return to Earth, a farewell ceremony was held beginning a little
after 2:30 p.m.
After the crews separated and hatches were closed, Drew and Stott
installed a centerline camera to help Boe as he pilots the shuttle
away from the station after the scheduled 6 a.m. Monday undocking.
Discovery’s first landing opportunity is at Kennedy Space Center
Wednesday at 10:58 a.m. Weather is predicted to be good, although
conditions on subsequent days are more questionable.
The shuttle crew is to begin its sleep period at 6:23 p.m.
The “Theme from Star Trek” performed by Alexander Courage will serve
as the wake up music to Discovery’s crew at 2:23 a.m. Monday. It
received the second most public votes from a Top 40 list in a Space
Shuttle Program-sponsored song contest. The top two songs with the
most votes from that list earned the right to be played as wake up
music for Discovery’s crew during its final mission.
The next status report will be issued after crew wakeup or earlier if
warranted.
-end-